Forget everything that you think that you know about the Technocracy. Sure, the Guide to the Technocracy was a nice piece of literature and almost handy as a recruitment flyer, but here's the real deal. The World of Darkness is not a nice place to be, it's overrun with vampires, werewolves, wraiths, mages and other things that go bump in the night. It's a real good place to wind up dead, and that's what every man, woman and child would be right now if not for the Technocracy.
"But wait", you say, "What about the Traditions?" Fools and petty shysters with cheap parlor tricks. What have they done so far? If they were truly a united organization, then perhaps some good would come of them and their efforts, but sadly, they are of 9 minds and not one. Unity of purpose and unity of command are what is needed in this war. Think about it. Who do you want working for you? The Akashic who works out for 3 hours a day and then meditates and is currently in Hong Kong running a dojo for a few dollars a day? Maybe the Etherite who is busy attempting to make a reactionless drive or a perpetual motion machine? Perhaps the Euthanatos who is looking for people who deserve the Little Good Death instead of the Big Bad Death. I'd bet my life (and I have and will continue to do so) on my team, the winning team.
It's not easy being on the front lines of this war day after day, however. Eventually you see enough shit to wear your morals and your beliefs to tissue thin veneers that you put on for Control. You develop a massive case of seige mentality (us and them, inside and outside), paranoia, pessimism and a piss poor attitude. You can only run the shadow ops for so long until there's nothing left of you anymore, then you get careless, then you die. It sucks, but what else can you do.
To truly understand the Technocracy, you have to understand that we are human beings. The face that is protrayed, the MiB's, the HIT Marks, socially isolated researchers and billion dollar executives is just good press. It's there to scare the people into helping us and our enemies into making mistakes. You think that Technocracy is made up of 30 year old single white males who wear expensive suits and carry fancy guns? here's the reality...
The Technocracy is the most racially diverse organization that you can find on the planet, or off of it. The majority of the Technocracy is married, although it is worth noting that most marriages are between technocratic agents or employees rather than to outsiders. The reasons are simple, if you understand the pressures, your marriage functions a lot smoother. Over 70% of agents have children, at least those that live into their 30's that is. Home life, as such, is very strange with both parents existing in a twilight of reality and fantasy. Most dual Technocratic homes become single parent homes within 10 years due to divorce, addiction or death. It is worth noting that 88% of the children of Technocrats are inducted into the Union by age 25. This phenomenon has led to the term "Techno-Brat" for these individuals. It is similar to the more common "Army Brat" on the outside.
Another fallacy that is so ingrained is that the Technocracy exists as some organization with offices of agents in cities and that you get your paychecks cut by the First Technocratic Bank of the Syndicate. Rubbish. The Technocratic Union is, in essence, a secret society. The names for the 5 Conventions are totally artificial and used only as adminstrative and classification tools. There is not a 3rd Brigade of the 2nd Border Corps Division, Void Engineers. The Syndicate doesn't own the mob or the Yakuza, just as the New World Order doesn't own Washington D.C. The organization of the Union resembles a terrorist organization or a cell of sleeper agents more than an actual corporate or government agency. The breakdown of the Conventions and their areas of operation are fairly well known so I won't bore you with the details
Everyone in the Technocracy has a job. That job is also their function in the Union. The Technocracy doesn't work like the Traditions were a Cabal is made up of a bunch of pals who found each other and decided that it would be cool if they played with the Art together. The Union recruits people for specific reasons. In every city with a population over 100,000, there is a member of the Syndicate, the NWO, Iteration X and the Progenitors. The Syndicate is either a corp or a crook of whatever variety is ascendent in that town. The NWO is either a cop (local or fed) or a lobbyist/politico. The Iterator is usually a electro/mechanical professional or a professor. The Progenitor is almost always a professor of biology or chemistry; failing that, it's an illegal drug lab genius. Surprisingly few Technocrats are actually medical doctors, the demands of the job keeps most of them on inactive status. Saving lives is what the Union is all about so it wouldn't do to pull a cardiologist out of the O.R. to chase down a Reality Deviant.
Another massive fallacy concerning the Union is the matter of recruitment. Tradition mages are basically self taught until they come to the attention of a mage and at that point they are inducted into the Tradition of the teacher. The Cabal and the Tradition come as prefab package. You want to learn magick, you learn it the way that you are taught. Not so in the Union. In the Union, recruitment begins early. When a child takes aptitude tests, a lot more than reading, writing and 'rithmetic are under scrutiny. Private schools, gifted and talented programs and scholastic/athletic competions are the first step in the average Technomancers indoctrination. By the time high school is completed, most potential recruits have already been identified and the paths to their enlightenment begin forming in an almost imperceptable pattern steering them to the Convention and Methodology most compatible with the psychological, physical and mental aptitudes of the recruit. As the Indoctrination takes several months to several years, there is not usually any psychic shock upon the discovery of a new reality. With the masterful job that the Syndicate's Marketing division has done, almost any sort of techno-conspriacy is palatable to anyone in an industrialized county with almost psycho-manipulation.
The only Convention to not benefit directly in recruiting is the Void Engineers. Vast multi-national intelligence operations (NWO), cyborgs (Iteration X), advanced genegeneering (Progenitors) and organized crime/mega corporate mergers (Syndicate) are simple worldviews to impart when compared to the VE's reality. Space warfare, FTL drives and galactic empires of XT's are still hard to swallow. This is compounded by the fact that the Void Engineers need huge amounts of manpower to crew their fighters, cruisers and destroyers, not to mention R&D (R&E in Voider parlance). How do they recruit?